In “Victory For Eurosceptics” British PM Will Begin Brexit Negotiations Without Parliamentary Vote
ZeroHedge.com
In what the Telegraph dubs a victory for Eurosceptics, the conservative newspaper reported overnight that Britain’s new Prime Minister, Theresa May, will not hold a parliamentary vote on Brexit before formally triggering Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union. “Her decision will come as a blow to Remain campaigners, who had been hoping to use Parliament to delay or halt Brexit entirely.”
According to the Telegraph, May will not offer opponents the chance to stall the withdrawal and has consulted lawyers who say she has the power to invoke the exit without a parliamentary vote. A majority of the 650 lawmakers had declared themselves “Remainers” and as had been widely speculated, by Tony Blair, the former Labour Prime Minister, and Owen Smith, the Labour leadership candidate, among others, that Remain-supporting MPs could use a Parliamentary vote to stop Brexit. Opponents maintain that since the EU referendum result is not legally binding, elected lawmakers should review the vote before the process is started.
Mr Smith last week set out plans to block Article 50 in Parliament. He said: “Under my leadership, Labour won’t give the Tories a blank cheque.
“We will vote in Parliament to block any attempt to invoke Article 50 until Theresa May commits to a second referendum or a general election on whatever the EU exit deal emerges at the end of the process. I hope Jeremy will support me in such a move.”
Tony Blair made a similar suggestion earlier this year as he suggested that Britain should be open to the idea of holding a second referendum: “If, as we start to see the details emerge of what this new world we are going into looks like, what are the practical effects, then parliament has got a role. The country should carry on being engaged in this debate, it should carry on expressing its view.”
However, Telegraph sources say that because Mrs May believes that “Brexit means Brexit” she will not offer opponents the opportunity to stall Britain’s withdrawal from the EU. A Downing Street source said: “The Prime Minister has been absolutely clear that the British public have voted and now she will get on with delivering Brexit.”
May has allegedly consulted with government lawyers who have told the new PM she has the executive power to invoke Article 50 and begin the formal process of exiting the European Union without a vote in Parliament.
That remains to be decided: a group of lawyers has mounted a legal challenge in a bid to force Mrs May to hold a parliamentary vote. The case, which will be heard in the High Court in October, argues that Article 50 cannot be invoked until the European Communities Act of 1972 is repealed.
However government lawyers are confident that they will win, paving the way for Article 50 to be triggered at the beginning of next year, which could see Britain leave the European Union in 2019.
Bill Cash, a eurosceptic Conservative MP and leading Brexit campaigner, said: “It sounds emphatic and that’s what we want to hear.
“There were people who are threatening to try and stop Brexit. The bottom line is that here is nothing that could possibly be allowed to stand in its way. Everyone in Europe is expecting it, the decision has been taken by the British people and that’s it. Let’s get on with it.”
While the vast majority of establishment economists and media outlets launched an unprecedented scaremongering campaign ahead of the vote to scare the British people into voting no on Brexit, which they had predicted would unleash a sharp recession, so far that has not happened – the BOE recently backtracked on its gloom and doom prediction of a “sharp” recession and is now predicting modest growth in 2017…
… and if anything recent data suggest that the UK, while experiencing a modest slowdown, may ultimately benefit from the sharp drop in sterling (tourism has already seen a dramatic bounce), and an inflow of foreign capital once the doomsday scenario does not materialize.